Accent in the Oasis

Yesterday, I told you about moving into my dorm during my freshman year at UT in Austin. Well, it didn't take long for me to figure out that Austin was different than my podunk town of Gatesville.

For one thing as I was introducing myself to other college students they would smile as I was talking and I could tell they weren't really listening to what I was saying and then they would ask where I was from. Then say something like, "you sound like you're from the country." or "you have a strong, Texas accent."

"Where are you from?" I would ask. And 95% of the time they would mention some suburb of Dallas or Houston or maybe just El Paso. Why they didn't have a "Texas accent" either I didn't know, but something was obviously different. One guy asked me, "Where are you from--Georgia?" "I'm from TEXAS!", I retorted. I didn't even know what a Georgian accent sounded like since I had hardly ever been outside the state. So many people said things like this that I began to wonder if Dallas was below the Mason-Dixon line.

Apparently, I was truly a novelty. At a big state college like UT you have mostly students from large urban areas and big schools. I had to face the fact that most hicks like me would graduate high school and then go to a Jr. college if any college at all or a trade school and then get married and start their life in a small town while urban kids were still pursuing their doctorate or medical school and marriage was still years away. So there was a difference in culture. I am not sure which is better. I think it's great to pursue higher education but I also think it is good to marry early if you find the right person (I got married a month before I turned 22). Also, I know lots of people that work blue collar jobs that are not only good at it but they enjoy it.

Another thing about Austin is that it is an Oasis of "not-Texas" in the middle of Texas. Most of Texas is staunch Republican, conservative, traditional, rural. In contrast, "Keep Austin Weird" is a local motto and many would proudly wear the label Vegan, Bleeding-Heart Liberal, homosexual, etc. Also, Austin's main industry is hi-tech (Dell, IBM, Nvidia, Intel, National Instruments, Samsung, etc) whereas when you drive outside of the city in any direction you will see cattle on the side of the road. Many people move from California or Colorado or all over Texas to Austin just because it is a "cool" place to live ("cool" is in quotes to show that I don't mean temperature-wise). In fact, I have lived here for about 8 years now and it is rare to meet someone who actually grew up in Austin. Most people moved here like me. They will say, "Yeah, I'm an Austinite." "REALLY?", I say. "Well, I've lived here for 15 years after moving from LA..."

I can't tell you how frustrating, embarrassing, and painful it was for people to point out my accent. I mean, no one had ever pointed it out before when I lived in Gatesville. But then I realized that everybody there sounded pretty similar to me. The funny thing is when I would meet other students with a "Texas accent" I would be immediately put at ease. As if to say, "finally, I can be myself and don't have to worry about how I talk". I could usually count on all the students from the Piney woods area of East Texas. They had a twang and a drawl that was music to my ears. I also enjoyed speaking to those who spoke what would be political correct to call Ebonics. They made me feel at ease to be myself as well.

By the end of college I had lost most of my accent. At least all of the rough edges were smoothed off through negative reinforcement from frustrating conversations. It was so gradual that I didn't realize it at the time until I saw an old home video and heard myself talking. Also, when I would go home to see my parents I noticed that the town folk sounded markedly different from my professors and classmates.

I wonder if I will ever get my accent back. I hear it slip out sometimes when I am angry or if I am talking to family. In some ways I feel like a sell-out and that I am not true to my roots since I lost it. Whatever the case may be, I vow to be kind to strangers who are new to a place and to not point out their accent.